Film review: 'Mendel'
A Holocaust drama with a twist, Alexander Rosler's semi-autobiographical Norwegian feature chronicles the experiences of Mendel, a 9-year-old boy who moves to Norway with his family in 1954.
Mendel's family are German Jewish refugees and survivors of the Holocaust, but he is too young to comprehend the enormity of their suffering. His attempts to fit into a strange new world of cod-liver oil and Christian missionaries, and his effort to understand what his family experienced, form the crux of this only intermittently affecting tale.
Mendel, played by talented child actor Thomas Jungling Sorensen, doesn't understand why his parents won't let him participate in Christmas activities like his friends. Family members discuss the past only in whispered conversations in which he is not allowed to participate, so he sets out to learn the truth about the Holocaust through books.
He learns what anti-Semitism means and becomes horrified at what he perceives as cowardice in response to the Nazis. Eventually, he begins to suffer from nightmares just as his parents do.
This material obviously means a great deal to director and screenwriter Rosler, but "Mendel" manages the rare feat of seeming both too quirky and overly familiar. Some scenes resonate forcefully, such as when Mendel's parents are horrified to discover that their son has drawn numbers on his arm in emulation of their neighbor, or the encounter between Mendel and a local nutcase whom he considers to be an anti-Semite. But mostly, the film is flatly paced and undramatic.
And its tone of gentle humor, all too reminiscent of countless other growing up tales (the ads are comparing it to "My Life as a Dog"), is more lugubrious than amusing.
MENDEL
First Run Features
Director, screenplay: Alexander Rosler
Producer: Axel Helgeland
Co-producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen,
Helga Bahr
Director of photography: Helge Semb
Film editor: Einar Egeland
Music: Geir Bohren, Bent Aserud
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mendel: Thomas Jungling Sorensen
Bela: Teresa Harder
Aron: Hans Kremer
David: Martin Meingast
Mrs. Freund: Charlotte Trier
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Mendel's family are German Jewish refugees and survivors of the Holocaust, but he is too young to comprehend the enormity of their suffering. His attempts to fit into a strange new world of cod-liver oil and Christian missionaries, and his effort to understand what his family experienced, form the crux of this only intermittently affecting tale.
Mendel, played by talented child actor Thomas Jungling Sorensen, doesn't understand why his parents won't let him participate in Christmas activities like his friends. Family members discuss the past only in whispered conversations in which he is not allowed to participate, so he sets out to learn the truth about the Holocaust through books.
He learns what anti-Semitism means and becomes horrified at what he perceives as cowardice in response to the Nazis. Eventually, he begins to suffer from nightmares just as his parents do.
This material obviously means a great deal to director and screenwriter Rosler, but "Mendel" manages the rare feat of seeming both too quirky and overly familiar. Some scenes resonate forcefully, such as when Mendel's parents are horrified to discover that their son has drawn numbers on his arm in emulation of their neighbor, or the encounter between Mendel and a local nutcase whom he considers to be an anti-Semite. But mostly, the film is flatly paced and undramatic.
And its tone of gentle humor, all too reminiscent of countless other growing up tales (the ads are comparing it to "My Life as a Dog"), is more lugubrious than amusing.
MENDEL
First Run Features
Director, screenplay: Alexander Rosler
Producer: Axel Helgeland
Co-producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen,
Helga Bahr
Director of photography: Helge Semb
Film editor: Einar Egeland
Music: Geir Bohren, Bent Aserud
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mendel: Thomas Jungling Sorensen
Bela: Teresa Harder
Aron: Hans Kremer
David: Martin Meingast
Mrs. Freund: Charlotte Trier
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/23/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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